Reception staggered starts are overkill?!

[SMLSML]

My little one starts school in September, we had our first meeting at the school tonight 😊 question... How on earth are you meant to cope with the staggered starts if you both work full time?! She won't officially start until 17th September, all other days before then are half days 🫠 she's been going to childcare since she's 1, she'll be so confused not going more than two hours a day for two weeks 😅 not to mention I have no idea how you make it work with childcare, chuck on top of that I'm meant to be away with work the first two weeks of Sept 🙃 how on earth are parents meant to work around it?! Just seems crazy to me she's not even properly in for half a month. I get all children are different but surely it should be optional?! All suggestions welcome 😅

It's ridiculous to expect working parents to be able to work this out. Our son had a 2 hour session before the summer holidays then just did full days thankfully!

I agree it is overkill for most children. There are very, very few children who are coming to reception having never been to this kind of setting before.

YANBU and you have the right to refuse. Maybe one or two shorter days but not for two weeks!

It is optional, but they won’t tell you that.

Mine are teens now and they did this then. We paid their daycare for full days with pick up and drop off until they were in full time

Our local schools (west of Scotland) have stopped this. The P1 class start late and finish early on day 1 then that's it. They're in usual school hours right from the start

They all survived

That’s ridiculous. My DC’ school didn’t do this.

I taught rec a few years back in a small village school. We offered 10-2 week 1, 9.30- 2.30 week 2, fully in week 3, OR fully in from day 1 which most parents took.

HOWEVER we had an average of 8 starters (in a mixed class with y1/y2). My husbands school do the staggered start but they have a 2 form entry (in shared areas, not separate classes) so they have 60 kids. You can't have 60 new kids turn up on day one, it would be bedlam. Having the staggered start helps the children become accustomed to routines, class/ area setup but also allows teachers to get to know the kids and what support they need . I do agree it's a nightmare for parents though.

Legally you're entitled to full days when they are elected eligible to start school, the school would have to provide full days. We have a staggered start over two days at the school I work at and even then are flexible to suit parents if it's needed

It’s completely crazy and feels wildly performative - as if it was actually necessary or had any evidence one presumes (?) that all schools would do something similar. Which they don’t.

Thank goodness when my DC joined primary they had 1-2 days at most where the split the class to do welcome and look around - then full steam ahead

Schools who do this are crap. You are well within your rights to say no, after the first couple of days we'll be attending full time. They can't say no - legally they have to provide the place full time from day one.

Its just an outdated tradition that I'm sure reception teachers like because it gives them a quiet couple of weeks at the start of September, but legally they can't enforce it.

DD's school has a four form entry, so 120 children starting in reception. They have a half day the first day, then they're in full time.

I’m in Ireland and for the first two years (age 5 - 7 approx) the school day finishes an hour early at 1.30 or 1.45 or so, it varies a bit from school to school. After that it’s approx 2.30/2.45 until they’re 12 or 13.

Or school didn’t have wraparound care either, so it made collecting children in different classes quite challenging. And it’s difficult when both parents work.
However, I think long days are hard for small children too so it’s a tough one.

It's optional, just tell them they will be in full-time from the start. By law (in the UK), children must receive full-time education from CSA, so remind them of that if they push back, although, if your child isn't yet CSA by September (CSA is from term AFTER turning 5), then you can't really use that one, but still, you've registered them for full-time education and they should be providing that service.

We have this also for September. What makes it more annoying is my daughter has been in the preschool full time since September in the school she is attending for reception. She will have the same teacher and TA as she had had all this school year and it is the same classroom as reception and preschool have the same room which is a huge class room but different sides so all that will change for her is which side of the class she sits on. I’ve asked for full time from the start but I’ve been told no they won’t budge and the best I can do is put her in preschool for the other half days which we will have to pay for. It would be more confusing for my daughter to do half days as she is so used to going there full time!

Schools haven’t adjusted their mentality since the introduction of 30 hours free childcare for pre school and still assume it’s a 4 year olds first chunk of time away from main carer. As others have said school need to provide 30 hours for 35 weeks or whatever so ask them what their plan is for this. Else chat to nursery to see if they’ll take them for the afternoons if that period - although still a pain.

I think 1 week settling process is plenty. And I’d expect kids to experience a lunch setting in school within the first 3 days at least.

my youngest really struggled with being booted out before lunch for the first 2 days. My eldest in y2 at the time complained it wasn’t fair and she wanted to come home at lunch time too 🤗

You can say your child is going full time from day 1 if you want. Or pay for childcare for a couple of weeks and pick them up from school and drop them off at childcare.
These posts come up every year, don't parents realise in advance this might happen?
If your child is doing breakfast/after school club you might want to check that. None of the schools around here will take reception age children in those clubs until October half term.

That must be really annoying. The first year of school in my country is the one year that they don't mess about with the days at the start. However every single school year after that they have half days for the first 3 days of the school year, and half days in the last few days at the end of the year.

Thankfully our school didn’t do that. Think there was maybe one half day. It is a nightmare for working parents. You might have to cancel your work trip.

The school my dd attended takes in anywhere from 100-120 children for their first year annually. They are separated into 4 or 5 groups depending on how many students there are. The teachers are perfectly capable of handling all the students immediately. They do one half day with everyone and then move to full days from day two.

(not a uk school hence the much larger size)

There is a thread on this is in the primary education section called Half days for ages!
You have the right for your dc to attend full time from day 1, tell the school this is what you will be doing.

I was in exactly the same situation with both my children when they starter. I explained to the teacher and she said fine for them to start full time. She said to some extent it’s also to help the teachers as much as the children so they have time to get to know all the children. Mine were fine, having been in nursery full time since babies. They even went straight in to after school for an hour afterwards, they didn’t know any different. With both parents working full time we didn’t have many other options.

There is another thread on this topic. You are entitled to send them full time from day one (we did). Notify the school and reference the Admissions Code 2021.

Our school tried this when DC1 started in reception, it was madness as most of the children had already been doing morning or afternoon sessions at the nursery the year before, had had visits to their new classroom, knew the teacher and lots of their classmates, it was completely pointless for the majority of kids. Fortunately, they did have on site wrap around care.

Thankfully by the time DC2 started, they’d had a rethink and were just doing a couple of shorter days then full time.

The school DD1 will go to have also stopped this. There's a stay and play before the summer, then first day is 5th Sept so Fri. Its a full day but then they get the weekend to recover and then back in on a Monday. When we did our visits, the head said that it was just very difficult for families to facilitate long staggered starts.